Brunner's Long Tramp.

When Thomas Brunner set out from Nelson on his greatest journey (Dec. 3, 1846), his object was to explore the Buller River downward to the sea from its headwaters, to go down the West Coast as far as practicable, and to seek an opening to the east—the then unpeopled Canterbury district—across the unknown mountains. He did not find it possible to fulfil the last mentioned mission, but he made known a great deal of the terra incognita of what is now Westland, and produced a report, the fruit of dogged perseverance and courage in the face of almost incredible difficulties, which won him fame and the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society for a great work of exploration. He had only Maoris for companions; two of these, Kehu and his wife, stuck faithfully to him through all his travels, and shared his privations; indeed he would have perished in the wilds but for them. His equipment was simple in the extreme; he lived mostly on bush fare, the products of the wilderness.